Monday Morning Update 12/12/22

Top News

Epic will shut down its App Market until “later in 2023”and temporarily replace it with Vendor Services that will provide access to documentation, testing sandboxes, and technical support.

The company will also launch Connection Hub on January 9, where any software vendor that connects to Epic can list their app and self-report if they successfully exchange data.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Most poll respondents wouldn’t appreciate a provider charging them personally for answering their questions by email or portal message (I intentionally left insurance out of the question since that introduces all kinds of rabbit hole arguments). Interesting comments:

• Providers should first recommend booking an appointment instead of charging to answer an inquiry.
• Does the provider allow patients to ask real questions that generate a situation-specific, useful response?
• Health insurance premiums have already paid for their time, and charging is a disincentive to getting care.
• The question is moot since billing codes are already available and other professionals don’t offer free advice.
• Patients asking questions this way may be a sign of other problems, such as lack of appointment availability.

New poll to your right or here, following up on my interview with Patrice Wolfe: How does industry networking differ between men and women?

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Findhelp. The public benefit corporation, which was previously known as Aunt Bertha, connects all people in need to programs that serve them with dignity and ease, offering the nation’s leading social care network and integrated software to modernize the social safety net. Over 400 health plans, health systems, governments, and cause organizations use its 600,000-program network, which is #1 in KLAS, to address social determinants of health. Customers can create their own branded platforms to connect their local communities with nearby social care resources. Its social care tools are integrated with Epic, Cerner, Athenahealth, EClinicalWorks, Innovaccer, and CarePort. Thanks to Findhelp for supporting HIStalk.

I’m fascinated that Findhelp has a film division that shares inspiring stories of people who are working to improve their communities, such as this one.

Thanks to the following companies that recently supported HIStalk. Click a logo for more information.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Sales

• Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust will implement Sectra’s enterprise imaging solution and radiology module.

People

Weill Cornell Medicine promotes Curtis Cole, MD to the newly created position of VP/chief global information officer. Deputy CIO Vipin Kamath, MBA will succeed Cole as CIO.

Meditech confirms that founder and board chair A. Neil Pappalardo has retired from the company that he started 54 years ago.

Announcements and Implementations

Business Insider looks at Medly, a “digital pharmacy” that raised $110 million in funding through mid-2020. The company, which offered a user app and services from its own brick-and-mortar pharmacies, ran out of money in losing $10 million per month. It closed half of its 51 locations, laid off 1,000 of its 1,900 employees, saw its founder and CEO leave without notifying employees, and filed bankruptcy Friday. Employees say the company was so strapped after its most recent layoffs that it ordered its salespeople to fill prescriptions, even as it assured the remaining employees that no more layoffs would be conducted and that profitability was imminent.  

Government and Politics

The VA plans to hire 1,000 new employees to work on its Oracle Cerner implementation as it recruits from Silicon Valley.

Defacto Health summarizes the comments CMS has received to its RFI to create a National Healthcare Directory.

Privacy and Security

A security firm finds that 70,000 websites, including those of hospitals, are using Twitter’s advertising tracker that works like the Meta Pixel in capturing user information. The Twitter advertising pixel can be configured to limit its data collection for advertiser-specific purposes, but 99% of the websites aren’t using that feature.

Baylor College of Medicine reviews the patient privacy and HIPAA aspects of digital photography.

The India-based cybersecurity firm that notified a hospital that its data was being offered for sale on the dark web is itself breached. CloudSEK says that an employee laptop it sent to a computer repair shop was returned with a new copy of Windows installed that also contained stealer log malware. The hacker didn’t get much of anything useful from the data and screenshots that the malware sent, mostly training documents and database schema screenshots.

Other

Three-fourths of surveyed British Medical Association members say that lack of interoperability is a significant barrier to digital transformation, with 30% adding that the software they use is not adequate for their job. Eighty percent of respondents report delays in accessing data from secondary care, while two-thirds say they aren’t confident that instant data sharing will happen within 10 years. BMA recommends that the government upgrade IT hardware and software, improve broadband and wi-fi in healthcare facilities, and develop interoperability standards.

Sponsor Updates

• Relatient staff honor World Volunteer Day by volunteering at local Rescue Mission homes in Nashville, Cookeville, and Atlanta.
• Wolters Kluwer Health publishes a new study, “Pharmacy Next: Health Consumer Medication Trends.”
• Premier announces that its Pinc AI solutions identified $1.5 billion in member-validated savings opportunities, generating an average return on investment of 16:1 between July 2021 and June 2022.
• TigerConnect publishes a new e-book, “When Every Second Matters: Guide to Speeding Critical Response Workflows.”

Blog Posts

• Best Software Integrations for Clinical Communication (PerfectServe)
• Thrive in the Face of Healthcare Labor Shortages with AP Automation (Premier)
• AAPC Case Study: Converting Risk into Revenue (RCxRules)
• 5 ways healthcare technology can help clinicians avoid burnout (Spok)
• 3 Studies Put Real-Time Prescription Benefit Under the Microscope of Peer Review (Surescripts)
• Ready for contact center AI? It’s easier than you think (Talkdesk)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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